August and September can be bad times to travel in SE Asia. At best it will be hot and humid and at worst… a typhoon can hit. I landed in a typhoon during September in Shanghai a few years back and it wasn’t fun. Looks like one is headed straight for Seoul though luckily (I hope) there is no need for me to leave the hotel. Hope all the glass stands up to the test.
Update: well Kompasu hit Seoul before 4am local time on 9/2. I was awoken by howls of wind and looking out the window, rain was moving horizontally and occasionally upwards. Small bits of tree were being deposited on the glass of my 9th floor window and the A/C was fritzing out periodically as no doubt it fought against the pressure outside the building.
Around 5am I heard sirens and someone on a tannoy, maybe trying to clear the streets. By 7am though it seemed business as usual and vehicles seemed to be going about their usual day in spite of the trees still being lopsided by heavy wind.
As it happens, things were worse than they seemed. Across the city power cables were down and windows had been blown out, indeed an 8’ by 10’ pane of glass in the hotel lobby had shattered after being blown in – a sight repeated across Seoul leading to lengthy repair times as glaziers became highly in demand. On the highway to the airport which is more open, entire trees had been dumped on the road.
Sadly, it seems three people lost their lives too.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11161376
We have another coming in next week, though it’s been veering west towards China and running out of steam so will hopefully be less serious.
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